As the Web has progressed since its creation, the markup languages used to format a Web page have also progressed. Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), the predominant markup language for Web pages, has progressed from only giving Websites basic structure of headings and paragraphs to become more complex and flexible, allowing users to add objects, such as images and tables, to a page.
Various Web site authoring tools or applications exist, which aid in Web page creation and design. Some Web site authoring tools may be implemented via a Web browser. These tools are typically more limited in functionality as compared to client-based tools. Many browser-based Web authoring tools either rely on a user to understand how to write code to create a Web site, or on the other hand, allow a user to enter data and drag-and-drop objects into a pre-designed Website template, requiring no HTML knowledge.
If a user understands how to write code to create a Web site, he/she can start with a blank page and create a completely customized Web page. With a pre-designed Web site, the design is typically set, and a user simply inserts the data he/she wants into text frames included in the template. A need exists for a negotiation between these two design extremes, giving a user more capability to design a Web site and to affect the layout without requiring him/her to understand the underlying code beneath the surface.
Most modern Web pages are constructed with multiple zones. A zone may be an HTML DIV element that is enclosed by a table cell. DIV elements are containers in which a user may place Web content. Collectively, zones may form an entire Web site. The terms “zone” and “DIV element” may be used interchangeably herein. When designing a Web site, a user must account for several factors that he/she has no control of when his/her Web site is viewed on the Web, for example, the size of the browser window, the Web browser used, the input devices used, and the size, design, and other characteristics of the fonts users have available on their own computers. This means that the content is dynamic; it may change in size and hence, underlying DIV elements must also change in size in order to contain all of the data and preserve the design of a Web site. A user may choose to control the appearance of the elements on a screen by specifying the width of DIV elements. If the width of a DIV element is specified, the height remains variable, and the contents may wrap at the specified width. Thus, regardless of which browser or screen resolution is used, the contents within the DIV element will wrap at the specified width, and the integrity of the Web page design is preserved.
A user may choose to specify a height of a DIV element in addition to a width. Web site editing tools exist for allowing for the vertical resizing of DIV elements; however, such tools accomplish vertical resizing by setting a cascading style sheet (CSS) height attribute of the DIV element. By setting the CSS height attribute of a DIV element, the DIV element becomes fixed, and is unable to size to dynamic Web content. For example, if an individual is viewing a Web page with a DIV element containing a specified width and height, and if the individual has his text display size set at a large size, the content contained within the DIV element may either be cut off by the dimensions of the DIV element, or may flow out of the DIV element and into other content. In either case, the intent of the Web design may be destroyed.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the present invention has been made.